Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce is dealing with a hyper-extended knee he sustained in practice on Tuesday. Now, the star tight end’s status for the NFL opener on Thursday Night Football vs. the Detroit Lions is in question. If Kelce is held out, it should impact how you approach drafting him in your fantasy football league. Here we’ll offer some advice.
Update — Per Albert Breer, Kelce is “probably unlikely” to play in Week 1 unless swelling goes down in his knee before Thursday night. We’re still operating under the assumption Kelce could be questionable or doubtful for the game. It feels like there’s a greater chance he sits out, though, given reports.
Travis Kelce injury: Fantasy football draft advice
Right now, we don’t know that Kelce is going to be held out Week 1 or beyond. But the way head coach Andy Reid told reporters on Tuesday and mentioned Kelce’s status is unknown isn’t a good sign. If it was a minor knee thing, Reid likely says that in some capacity. So we can expect at the very least Kelce to have a injury designation, either questionable or doubtful.
If you already have Kelce on your team, find a potential replacement immediately. If Kelce is out Week 1, you’ll need someone in the short-term. If the hyper-extension holds Kelce out additional time, you may need a long-term replacement at TE.
If you’re drafting Tuesday night or Wednesday (or even Thursday before the game), here’s how to go about Kelce. On average, Kelce is going in the first round in pretty much all formats. In PPR, he’s going as high as picks 4-5. In standard, he’s going a bit later. But tight end really lacks high-end fantasy talent. It’s Kelce, Mark Andrews and a large group of players behind those two. Andrews is also dealing with injury this week, keep that in mind when drafting.
You can’t fade Kelce entirely. We also know right now that the injury isn’t expected to be long-term. Drafting Kelce in the first round and losing one game of him isn’t the end of the world. What is more concerning is if the injury holds Kelce out additional games and god forbid he needs surgery, which would be at least a month or so recovery. We don’t have any of that info, however, so we need to proceed as though the worst case is Kelce sits Week 1.
If that’s the reality, Kelce may be a reach in the top-5 players or so. But at the back-end of the first round, he still feels like an OK option. If because of this injury he starts to drop, that’s where you could get yourself a ton of value in the second round. If he drops to the third round, that feels like a gift. Again, we only know Kelce could miss Week 1. It would be risky taking him in any capacity, but it’s similar to Cooper Kupp’s situation. We’ve seen Kupp plummet down draft boards from the mid-first round to the later rounds.
If you’re drafting for a new dynasty league, Kelce probably isn’t worth a high pick. He’s getting up there in age and if this is the start of his decline, you don’t want to jump on that train right now. Kelce is still fine to pick in a keeper or dynasty format if you can get him later than the first or second round. Again, we don’t know if this is serious. The best advice is to keep up on the latest news before drafting. Proceed with caution and have a backup plan in place (drafting another TE as a handcuff starter).
